Sir Ed Davey defends election stunts by sliding down a water slide in a rubber ring

Lib Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has pulled off the latest of his crazy stunts by sliding down a large rubber children’s slide.

The politician wore swimming shorts and a T-shirt to slide down the Ultimate Slip n Slide attraction near Frome, Somerset.

After coming down the slide, Sir Ed said: “It was great fun, really good fun.”

On Wednesday he was photographed cycling during a visit to Wales, and on Tuesday he fell repeatedly from his paddleboard on Lake Windermere in Cumbria.

Speaking later, Sir Ed enjoyed performing stunts.

“I think politicians should take their voters’ concerns and interests seriously, but I’m not sure they have to take themselves seriously all the time, so I’m quite happy to have a little fun,” he said.

Sir Ed was in the Frome and East Somerset constituencies to support the campaign of Liberal Democrat candidate Anna Sabine and to highlight his party’s commitment to improving mental health support for young people.

The new seat was created from part of the former Somerton & Frome constituency, which was won by Lib Dem Sarah Dyke in last year’s by-election.

“But today we are showing the serious side of our policymaking,” he said.

“We have hundreds of thousands of children and young people waiting for mental health treatment. It’s really scary.

“If you talk to their parents, you talk about teachers, they are concerned not only about their health now, but also about how it will affect their education in the future, their future life chances, future opportunities and they want the party to say how do we fix this?

“That’s why we spoke to experts with this set of ideas to ensure that every school has a qualified mental health professional working with staff so that we can implement early intervention and make sure we get the treatment they deserve when only this will happen. I need it.

“We think this will turn things around and we have shown how we will pay for it.”

Sir Ed said the plan would be funded by a rise in the digital services tax – currently 2% of companies’ revenue from search engines, social media and e-commerce platforms.

Speaking to the Frome Football Club media, the Lib Dem leader ruled out raising income tax, social security contributions or VAT to cover his party’s plans.

“The Conservatives have raised taxes so much to record levels at a time when people are struggling with the cost of living, high energy bills, mortgages and food prices, it would be completely inappropriate to raise taxes further,” Sir Ed said.

“I’m just surprised that the Conservatives are going into this election promising high taxes.

“They continue to freeze tax breaks for the next several years. This is not what voters want.

“But we have to pay for our policies and that is why we have identified a number of sectors, commercial and industrial sectors, that can afford to pay slightly more taxes.

“Some of our policies are being paid for by rolling back the Conservatives’ tax cuts for big banks. Since 2015, they have cut taxes on big banks by almost £4 billion a year.

“We think this needs to be reversed because the big banks are doing terribly well.

“We were the first party to advocate the introduction of a tax on windfall profits for oil and gas energy giants.

“We will have to find more money for our health proposals and soon we will publish a manifesto and you will see how everything works.”